Together For Short Lives

Interim Trust Fundraising & Mentoring Support

The Brief:

After six successful years with the charity our Head of Trusts moved overseas and took up an exciting new role. We then struggled with our recruitment to find a replacement and found ourselves with a vacant role for much longer than we anticipated in one of our core income areas

Action Taken:

We were very lucky that we were able to engage MTF and specifically Deanna to support us for one day a week – what this gave us was a very flexible solution, that allowed us to access a wealth of T&F knowledge, best practice, and guidance. Deanna was able to work alongside our existing Trust Officer and share the workload, but more importantly act as trusted source of knowledge and guidance at a time when we had lost that role. The flexibility worked brilliantly for us with Deanna fitting around deadlines and adapting to our requirements whether researching prospects, shaping a case for support or leading on a larger bid.

Difference Made:

After the first year of COVID there was a lot of competition for skilled trust and foundation staff, and many charities had some success in this area and tried to add skilled staff. This meant recruitment was difficult and the sector as more competitive. That aside MTF were exceptionally easy to work with, very transparent and open – and their knowledge and skills meant we were able to manage this challenging period

Results:

Survived! Maya has come through this period feeling more confident and having found it a period of development. We have developed alternative case for supports for our work; and develop a bid and case for support for a new area of our work in education

In relation to the applications you prepared, we were successful with two – £1000 from the Lord Barnby Foundation and £400 from the Anthony and Deidre Montagu Charitable Trust. You may also remember that the Edwina Mountbatten and Leonora Children’s Foundation had also just responded to you and so we followed up with a larger application. Unfortunately that was unsuccessful but I’ve been speaking to their administrator and we’re going in with another bid in the next round (which annoyingly isn’t until next Spring as they work on an annual basis!).